Anil Kumble’’s team might not be able to blunt Australia’s pace attack because it looks unlikely that the four Test centres will be able to prepare turning tracks

Pradeep Vijayakar | TNN

Mumbai: As the dust settles on the blasts in New Delhi, Cricket Australia has sent a positive signal, saying the tour to India is very much on. A security team has arrived to assess the ground situation but as of now, BCCI can go ahead with its plans. The foremost thing on every fan’s mind is if India can exact revenge on the Aussies who conquered the ‘final frontier’ the last time they were here. India came within inches of winning the series Down Under but failed as the tour took an acrimonious turn. The question now is: how is the team, the management and the board preparing to quell the Aussie challenge? Although the new season has already gone under way with the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai, it will not pick up steam until the Irani Trophy commences next week. It’s only when the Indian team, under captain Anil Kumble and coach Gary Kirsten, gets together that the strategies will be plotted. But has anybody already taken the first step to set the stage for a coup? It doesn’t look like any word has gone to the staging associations to prepare pitches that will India’s strengths. The bad news is that the four centres where the Tests are scheduled may not be able to prepare turning tracks. Given Australia’s pace-dominated attack and absence of a fear-inducing spinner, and the resurgence of Harbhajan Singh, India would be more than happy to play on rank turners. Those plans may, however, remain unfulfilled due to the delayed monsoon. It means we won’t see dry conditions when the Aussies are here. That would indicate that the pitches will be sluggish or flat; in fact, they might even help the seamers in bursts. Interestingly, the pitches committee too has not sent any instructions to the staging centres. It may partly be because BCCI elections are scheduled to be held later this month. If new office-bearers take over (there are going to be a few changes), they might have their own ideas too. The curators wouldn’t want to be caught on their wrong side. Most of them, with Daljit Singh at the helm, are in fact concentrating on the pitches for the domestic season. Said Daljit about his Mohali pitch, which is also a Test venue: ‘‘The pitch is being used by the junior teams. Twenty-five hours of pre-season rolling is currently on. The density will be increased so that a hard block is prepared.’’ Mohali’s bouncy reputation is built on this famous block. What’s the outlook for the other centres? Last time around, for the Pakistan Test match, the Bangalore pitch was barely 40 days old. This time around, with a little more time at hand, a better pitch is expected with better bounce. According to Daljit, the Kotla pitch at Delhi is problematic because the clay layer is about one and a half feet deep. It doesn’t dry easily. The soil profile thus is dicey. More compacting is needed if the bounce were not be variable. The upshot of this is that Kotla pitch will be result-oriented. Finally the pitch for Nagpur at the new stadium of the Vidarbha Cricket Association. The new president-to-be, Shashank Manohar, would want to have the best pitch for starters. Kishore Pradhan, who has been preparing the track at the VCA Stadium all these years, is the BCCI curator from Central Zone. He is an old hand, even old-fashioned in many ways. But he is expected to do a good job. So what are the benchmarks for a good pitch? Says Dhiraj Parsana the West Zone curator who has already begun work at Motera in Ahmedabad: ‘‘For ODIs it should be a good batting pitch, with minimum sideways movement. For a five-day Test match, the pitch should help all three departments. It should seam on the opening day and, after lunch on the second day, must be conducive for batting. There should be minimum heavy rolling during this period and on the last two days the spinners should come into action.’’ Of course, such a track might not really suit India’s volatile batting order. The best thing would be for the bosses to chalk out a plan quickly. SURFACE TENSION The playing surface always attracts loads of attention in the country. It will once again be in the spotlight during the forthcoming India-Australia Test series. TOI checks what lies in store at the four venues which will be hosting the Tests. CHINNASWAMY STADIUM, BANGALORE 1st Test: Oct 9-13 WORK IN PROGRESS: During the Indian Premier League matches in April-May earlier this year, the relaid centre pitch threw up mixed reactions after almost each match. While some captains felt there was decent bounce, others felt it was on the slower side. The last Test against Pakistan in 2007 was played on one of the slowest ever pitches, forcing skipper and leg-spinner Anil Kumble to switch to medium pace in an effort to get some life off it. The game still ended in a draw but with the new pitch having settled in somewhat, even if not fully as yet, curator Narayan Raju is optimistic of better results. PITCH REPORT: Raju expects the pitch to play true. “We will provide a sporting track with good pace and carry,’’ he said. “There will be normal wear and tear and that will mean something for everyone, the spinners included,’’ added Raju. PCA STADIUM, MOHALI 2nd Test: Oct 17-21 HARD FACTS: Not much change is expected here. ‘‘Traditionally, the PCA track has always been hard and it’s not possible to change it’s nature overnight,’’ says Daljit Singh, the curator, who is also the chairman of the BCCI pitches committee. ‘‘However, this doesn’t mean that only seamers will exploit the conditions. Due to monsoon, preparation of the track hasn’t been easy. But we have done our best to prepare a sporting wicket that will hold true for the entire five days.’’ PITCH REPORT: ‘‘Since the wicket will have bounce, finger spinners won’t be able to extract much spin from it. But wrist spinners like Kumble will prove a handful,’’ says Daljit. FEROZESHAH KOTLA, DELHI 3rd Test: Oct 29-Nov 2 OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLE?: Nine new wickets have been re-laid this season with the promise of good lift to the pacers. But after the first day’s play between the Delhi Ranji team and the Pakistan domestic team in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy on Monday, the wicket looks like the usual ‘‘paata’’ of the past. Keen observers even commented that the smattering of grass may just be in the wrong area of the pitch. ‘ ‘Each of the nine wickets have been relaid with a unique mix of mitti which will provide good bounce to the pacers. This kind of mix has not been used before in India. My aim is to provide an audience-friendly Test. In the T20 era, Test match is dying out, so the last thing I want is a draw,’’ says Radhe Shyam, the curator. PITCH REPORT: ‘‘If both the first innings are over within two days then there is a greater chance of a result. Hopefully we can produce that kind of wicket,’’ says Radhe Shyam. When asked if he had received any directives from Daljit Singh, the pitch and grounds committee chairman, Shyam retorted, ‘‘I have never received any directives from anyone, anytime during my stint as curator of Kotla.” VCA STADIUM, NAGPUR 4th Test: Nov 6-10 NEW VENUE, NEW TRACK: Unlike the last time (2004), when a green carpet was rolled out, everything’s new here, including the Rs 80-crore stadium and the playing surface. Shashank Manohar, the VCA chief who is also the BCCI president-in-waiting, is confident the Indian team will have a lot to cheer here. The imposing ground, situated 10-km away from the city, has a 75-yard boundary which means spinners won’t feel shy to flight the ball. In the first practice match held at the stadium, two batsmen got hundreds. Interestingly, the spinners took 20 wickets as compared to just 7 by the pacers. PITCH REPORT: ‘‘The wicket is devoid of any grass. The pitch has a decent bounce. There will be lot of encouragement for the spinners,” opines MN Dorairajan, vice president of VCA. ‘‘Since this is a brand new wicket, it still needs a lot of rolling and watering.’’ (By Satish Viswanathan, Gaurav Kanthwal, Arghya Ganguly and Ajay Naidu)

PREPARING FOR TURF WARS: Pitches like the one here at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi don’t dry easily, leading to variable bounce, while the one at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur (below) is newly laid